Ex-fashion and costume designer Michele Pernetta became hooked on Bikram yoga after it helped her recover from injury. She never looked back, and after training with Bikram himself, opened the UK's first dedicated Bikram studio in January 2000.
What first led you along the yoga path?
I was living in Los Angeles. I was a martial artist for eight years, and injured both knees during this time. I didn't want to accept the surgery that had been offered to me; I felt the body must be able to heal itself.
A friend recommended I go the "knee guru" (as Bikram is sometimes known). He told me he could fix my knees, so I decided to trust him and do what he said. It wasn't easy and I soon realised that my knee problems were just part of a whole body misalignment.
So Bikram really did heal my knees. They're better now than they were before the injury!
How long were you practising yoga before you decided to train as a teacher?
I practised Bikram for nearly 10 years, as well as other yoga styles for the two years when I lived in London and there were no Bikram studios. I then took the Bikram teacher training course in Los Angeles.
Why did you decide to become a teacher?
Having healed my knees and avoided surgery, and seen how others had had similar and even more miraculous benefits from the yoga, I was very keen that others realise its incredible healing potential.
I had no intention of being a teacher at first. When I moved back to London from LA twelve years ago, I realised there was nothing here similar to Bikam.
My friends and I practised it from my living room and when that became over-crowded I moved the "class' (no money was being taken) to a health centre one night a week. That soon became crowded and the classes became two or three nights a week. By that stage I was just teaching with Bikram's permission.
I did this for six years, carting my portable heaters to the health centres to teach. However, It became even more evident to me how much people wanted this yoga.
I was working full time as a fashion and costume designer, and running casual classes in the evenings just so myself and my friends could keep up our practise, and we all just split the cost of the room.
By this time I had 200 students, and the room was overcrowded and too cool. I felt an obligation to my students to open an official Bikram studio with all the correct heat and showers thrown in - so I went to LA and did the teacher training, coming back to open the first Bikram studio in the UK in Jan 2000.
What drew you to Bikram over other styles of yoga?
I was drawn to Bikram for its strength, and no nonsense approach. It teaches you that if you want great changes, you are going to have to work for them. I was amazed by its capacity to realign the body and sort out long term problems, as well as achieve deep stress and tension release.
I was also lucky enough to be able to take class with Bikram Choudhury himself, six days a week for nearly four years. He is the most incredible yoga teacher, a real genius.
Under his guidance, I was able to let go of my fear about using my knees, as well as learn how to go beyond myself in deeper, more spiritual ways. He teaches spirituality, using the body as a vehicle, andIi was amazed at the depths the yoga could take you to.
How would you describe your teaching style?
My teaching style, I would like to think, is compassionate, but with the intention of guiding people into the more challenging areas of themselves - areas they may not otherwise want to address.
For me, yoga is partly about moving through challenging areas in ourselves (be they physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual) intelligently, and being able to acknowledge that this may be frightening, or difficult. A good yoga teacher inspires you to go beyond your limitations with strength and compassion.
Where do you teach now?
I teach in my three studios, Bikram yoga North, Bikram Yoga West and Bikram Yoga City. I sometimes do classes or seminars from the other UK Bikram studios and teach at the International headquarters in Los Angeles when I am visiting there. I also take groups on Bikram Yoga intensive holidays to Turkey and Spain each summer.
How do you fit in your own practice around your teaching?
I do 26 teacher training classes a week and feed back to the students about their teaching. So I get myself into that hot room regularly for my own practise and to help them with their teaching.
When working and teaching it is always a challenge to make the time to keep up ones own practise, but without this it's impossible to keep your own teaching alive.
I go to vist Bikram once or twice a year to get my practise "hot-housed" and while there i always go to Brian Kest, Erich Schiffman, Max Strom and Steve Walter's classes. They are some of the most wonderful teachers teaching in the USA.
How important is yoga to you now?
From becoming the number one most important thing to me, while I was healing and growing, it yoga has has become woven into the fabric of my life and I will never be without it.
What do you particularly enjoy about teaching?
I am absolutely fascinated by people's journeys, their individual physical challenges, and their deepening of their practises. I find every single person fascinating. I also especially like to work with people with injuries or specific limitations.
I love to see people overcome themselves and their limitations and I get such a high out of seeing people heal, have more energy, understanding of themselves and vitality for life. I have so many students that have inspired me with their dedication, hard work and overcoming of difficulties.
What aspects of yoga do you find challenging, or difficult?
It's never the body that's the problem, rather it's the mind. The most difficult thing to do is take someone past a refusal in themselves, mentally; a resistance to the yoga that may arise in their minds.
This is the rockiest mountain to navigate, and is the only thing that prevents someone moving forward. I can usually see in their first class whether someone has an issue to confront in themselves and if they are willing to do so.
When, occasionally, someone tries to walk out of the class after the fist few minutes, I can usually tell if it is something I can talk them through and get them to stay, or if it really is too much for them to confront at this time of their life, in which case I let them go!
It is always difficult to meet one's own limitations face to face in the yoga room. Whatever level you are. It is always the same, you just get better at dealing with the mind and it's desire to avoid difficulty.
At a certain points you just stop taking the mind so seriously. Martial arts taught me this, but yoga developed it and gave me a real way of practising it.
How did you think yoga is perceived in the UK now? Is its increasing popularity a good thing?
We are so very much further forward than we were a few years ago. Yoga has come out of its "hippie" image, and we have better teachers, better schools, and more awareness. I think it is wonderful.
But we still have some way to go in order to educate the public about what yoga really is. The most common misconception I come up against when telling people about yoga is that they think you have to be flexible, instead of realising that the practise itself will create better flexibility and that being inflexible is the best reason to come.
The only downside is that its increasing popularity means that some people, motivated only by money, may teach, or put on classes, without the correct qualifications, or with only material benefit in mind. But this is the same in any walk of life. It is our responsibility as practitioners to find the bona fide studios and teachers and do our research.
Do you think yoga in the UK is becoming as popular as it now is in the US?
Yes I do. The USA is at least 10 years ahead of us, but we are catching up fast! Once someone takes up yoga practise for real and gets beyond those challenging first few months, they very rarely ever stop. It becomes a lifetime practice.
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